What is this picture?

Question

What is shown in this image?

Accepted Answer

graphite pencil tip. Graphite Pencil Tips When you sharpen a pencil, you're not actually sharpening graphite—you're sharpening the wood around it, which means the graphite core is slightly recessed inside the tip and never touches a sharpener's blade. This clever design is why graphite pencils can write so smoothly; that tiny air gap between the graphite tip and the wood prevents the fragile graphite from snapping off every time you sharpen.

Answer: graphite pencil tip